Rapid growth of population and impetuous development of industry have caused a steady growth in water consumption. In thinly populated developing areas, as well as in large cities, owing to sharp deterioration of environmental conditions, for instance, because of spring high-flood, the water quality sharply drops so that the requirements for drinkable water cannot be met. Therefore, a need arose to purify fresh water from pollutants.
Known in the prior art is a method for electrolytic water treatment for improving properties of water (Ref. U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,829). In accordance with the above-cited method, the water is subjected to electrochemical treatment in a flow-through hydraulic system comprising three in-series connected membrane-type electrolysis cells. The water is successively treated, first in the cathode compartment of a first electrolysis cell and next in the anode compartments of second and third electrolysis cells. The water treated by the above-cited method contains considerable quantities of products resulting from anodic oxidation and is fully disinfected, without, however, meeting the requirements for drinkable water. Moreover, the above-cited process, apart from the three membrane-type electrolysis cells, necessitates the presence of a system intended to preset, in synchronism, the operational conditions of the electrolysis cells, whereby the practicability of the process is rendered considerably more difficult.
Equally known in the prior art is another electrolytic water purification process (Ref. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 1,171,428; publ. in Bulletin No. 29; 1985), whereby water is caused to flow through a first and a second compartments of an electrolysis cell. The latter is divided by a permeable partition into first and second compartments, each of which accomodates an electrode, one of these electrodes being an anode, and the other--a cathode. Next electric current is caused to flow through the water between the anode and the cathode. The water flows in succession through the cathode and anode compartments, and, prior to entering the anode compartment, the water is subjected to filtering. Because of the above-described sequence of the compartments, through which the water is caused to flow, the water after treatment in the anode compartment contains residual anodic oxidation products, such as, e.g. HClO, ClO.sup.- which are toxic for the human organism.